Auswahl der wissenschaftlichen Literatur zum Thema „International Labour Organisation. Jakarta Office“

Since their foundation, the European Communities were characterised by a specific recipe for the labour market, centred on the promotion of labour mobility and a marked focus on vocational training and social dialogue. Drawing on an extensive range of primary sources, this article retraces the roots of that recipe in the reformist thinking of the interwar years, with a special point of reference in the International Labour Office. Identified within that body since the 1920s, the recipe evolved through the experiences of the great crisis and post-war demobilisation. It was then adapted to the needs of European economic integration.

Purpose This paper aims to investigate to what extent and for which reasons the codes of conduct and social audits of multinational corporations (MNCs) have failed to change practices within Chinese factories. A special attention is given to the social compliance initiatives (SCIs) and multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) which did not overcome the main obstacles of the compliance approach. Design/methodology/approach This research is based on a fieldwork in China, including 36 semi-constructed interviews with practitioners involved in corporate social responsibility (CSR), participant observation in the CSR programme of the International Labour Organisation office in Beijing and several visits of factories involved in CSR programmes. Secondary sources are used to estimate the distribution of value added along global value chains (GVCs). Findings The codes of conduct and social audits tend to reproduce the domination of MNCs within GVCs. This paper highlights some obstacles – and opportunities – for CSR appropriate to the Chinese context. Research limitations/implications Only a few MNCs agreed to meet the author and speak openly. No one allowed the author to visit their suppliers’ factories. Practical implications The findings of this study suggest that the most widespread approach to CSR by MNCs is flawed. More attention should be given to specific institutional contexts and to workers’ participation. Originality/value CSR discourse and practices in China are put in the context of GVCs and in the transformation of Chinese industry and labour relations. This method allows going beyond a case study approach. Instrumentations of several SCIs and MSIs are also analysed in detail.

According to Ray Oldenburg Third Place, refers to the place where people spend time between home ('first place') and place of work ('second place'). One example of a third place is a recreation center. According to Daniel D. Mclean, recreation can include a very wide variety of activities, including sports. Sports recreation is a type of sport that is intentionally done for personal gain, for fun. Life in a big city, like Jakarta, which is full of activities and routines can cause boredom and mental stress on the community. Based on data from the International Labor Organization, total working hours in a week in Jakarta increased in 2016 with a total of 32 hours compared to total working hours in 2006 of 27 hours and based on research from the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), Indonesia was in position 3 with the country with the worst balance between work and life with a figure reaching 14.3%. According to a psychologist, Kartasasmita, M. Psi, work is the highest cause of stress on a person. With Jakarta's condition like that, needed a facility that can accommodate the recreational and fitness needs of the community in the form of Third Place. The aim of this project is to improve the quality of life of urban communities, in terms of physical and psychological health and fitness. The design method used is comparison which refers to the Place theory in Architecture according to Christian Norberg Schulz. The main programs offered in this project include a fitness area, sports studio, spa, sauna, hydrotherapy pool, jogging track, bicycle track, yoga & meditation park, and supporting areas such as sports retail and dining areas. AbstrakMenurut Ray Oldenburg tempat ketiga (Third Place), mengacu pada tempat di mana orang menghabiskan waktu antara rumah ('tempat pertama') dan tempat bekerja (tempat 'kedua'). Salah satu contoh tempat ketiga adalah pusat rekreasi. Menurut Daniel D. Mclean, rekreasi dapat mencakup berbagai kegiatan yang sangat luas, termasuk olahraga. Rekreasi olahraga merupakan jenis olahraga yang sengaja dilakukan untuk kepentingan pribadi, untuk bersenang-senang. Kehidupan di kota besar, seperti Jakarta yang penuh dengan aktivitas dan rutinitas dapat menimbulkan kejenuhan dan tekanan mental pada masyarakatnya. Berdasarkan data dari International Labour Organization, total jam kerja dalam seminggu di Jakarta meningkat pada tahun 2016 dengan total 32 jam dibandingkan dengan total jam kerja pada tahun 2006 yaitu 27 jam dan berdasarkan penelitian dari Organisation For Economic Co-Operation And Development (OECD), Indonesia berada di posisi 3 dengan negara yang paling buruk keseimbangan antara kerja dan kehidupan dengan angka mencapai 14,3%. Menurut seorang psikolog, Kartasasmita, M. Psi, pekerjaan merupakan penyebab stress tertinggi pada seseorang. Dengan kondisi Jakarta yang seperti itu, diperlukan sarana yang dapat mewadahi kebutuhan rekreasi dan kebugaran masyarakat berupa Third Place. Tujuan proyek ini untuk meningkatkan kualitas hidup masyarakat perkotaan, dalam hal kesehatan dan kebugaran baik fisik maupun psikis tubuh. Metode desain yang digunakan yaitu komparasi yang mengacu kepada teori Place dalam Arsitektur menurut Christian Norberg Schulz. Program utama yang ditawarkan pada proyek ini terdapat area fitness, studio olahraga, spa, sauna, hydrotherapy pool, jogging track, bicycle track, yoga & meditation park, dan area penunjang seperti sport retail dan tempat makan.

The slow advancement of women in their workplaces remains a social concern for corporates and industry experts across the globe (International Labour Organisation Report, 2018). During the covid-19 pandemic, the advancement of women got significantly impacted owing to the increased burden of domestic responsibilities and other personal challenges. According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy Report (2021), women in India were seven times more likely to lose their jobs during the pandemic and eleven times more likely to not return to work after the job loss. With the Covid-19 pandemic on the rise and spreading, companies were forced to redesign their work systems, initiate and adopt a remote-work setup option. While, a majority of companies continue with the hybrid model, some companies are slowly eliminating it and returning to the regular office norms as before. This change is likely to impact women, especially the working mothers, owing to the uneven distribution of child-care responsibilities, domestic work, etc. Additionally, conventional barriers such as discriminatory practices, mentoring, networking challenges and role conflicts are expected to persist or rather increase in the changed-working models – be it the hybrid, remote, or completely offline system. The present study focuses on identifying the constraints faced by the Indian women striving against the current for their career advancements, both during the Covid-19 pandemic disruption phase and post-pandemic scenario. The insights from the study will be helpful to gain a cumulative understanding about the challenges faced by women owing to the emerging work system and in addressing the future concerns more systematically.

AbstractMasood Khan has been Pakistan's Ambassador to the People's Republic of China since September 2008. From March 2005 to September 2008, Ambassador Khan served as Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office and other International Organizations in Geneva. As an official of Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he has served in Islamabad and abroad for thirty years. In 2009, he was promoted to the highest rank – that of Federal Secretary – in Pakistan's civil service. Earlier, among other functions, he worked as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Director-General for the United Nations and for Disarmament, and as its spokesman. Over the years, he has acquired expertise in multilateral diplomacy, security and disarmament issues, human rights, humanitarian diplomacy, and social development. He has also specialized in international conferences, having held several leadership positions, such as President of the Conference on Disarmament, President of the 6th Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention, Coordinator of the Group of the Organisation of Islamic States in Geneva, Chairman of the International Organization for Migration Council, Chairman of the International Labour Conference Reform Committee, and Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the 30th International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent.

Abstract: Nowadays, Vietnamese women are participating actively in parts of the economy that were previously deemed male domain. Women are involved in business activities at all levels in Vietnam, making significant contributions to the economic development of the country. By December 2011, there were 81,226 small and medium enterprises headed by women, accounting for 25% of the total number of enterprises in the country (GSO, 2013). In Vietnam, despite recent economic development, socio-cultural and legal barriers are still very difficult for women since the general perception in society is that a woman’s main duty is to be a good housewife and mother and they are also often perceived as weak, passive and irrational (VWEC, 2007). Even though the studies related to women entrepreneurship development are quite extensive, amongst them only a limited number of researches on the role of legal and socio - cultural barriers on women entrepreneurs in the context of Vietnam have been investigated. Thus, supported by the World Trade Institute (WTI) in Bern, Switzerland, the researchers have chosen this as the subject of this study. Based on a quantitative survey of 110 companies in Hanoi and adjacent areas, the research has taken legal and socio - cultural barriers and explored their effect on the development of women entrepreneurship in the context of Vietnam in order to indicate how women entrepreneurs perceive the impact of socio-cultural factors, economic impacts, and policy reforms on their entrepreneurial situations and initiatives, and to then provide policy implications for promoting women’s entrepreneurship and gender equality in Vietnam. Keywords Entrepreneurship, female entrepreneurs, gender equality, Vietnam References Acs, Z. & Varga, A. (2005) ‘Entrepreneurship, agglomeration and technological change’, Small Business Economics, 24, 323---334. Avin, R.M & Kinney, L.P (2014). Trends in Female Entrepreneurship in Vietnam Preliminary paper presented at the 23th Annual Conference on Feminist Economics sponsored by IAFFE, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana, June 27-29, 2014.Avin, R.-M., & Kinney, L. P. (2014) ‘Trends in Women entrepreneurship in Vietnam’, 23rd Annual Conference on Feminist Economics, Ghana: 27 – 29 June.Bruton, G. D., Ahlstrom, D., & Obloj, K. (2008). Entrepreneurship in emerging economies: where are we today and where should the research go in the future. Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, 32(1), 1–14.Bunck, J. M. 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Vietnam: Food and Agricultural Organisation and United Nations Development Programme. Available at: http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/ac685e/ac685e00.htm [Accessed 7 December 2015].Fuentelsaz, L., González, C., Maícas, J., & Montero, J. (2015). ‘How different formal institutions affect opportunity and necessity entrepreneurship’. Business Research Quarterly, 18(4), 246-258. Gallup, J (2004) The wage labor market and inequality in Vietnam. In Economic growth, poverty, and household welfare in Vietnam edited by Paul Glewwe, Nisha Agrawal, and David Dollar. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank.General Statistics Office of Vietnam (GSO) (2014), Population and employment Report 2014Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. (2013). Vietnam report 2013. United Kingdom. Retrieved from: www.gemconsortium.orgHampel-Milagrosa, A., Pham, H., Nguyen, Q., and Nguyen, T. (2010) ‘Gender-Related Obstacles to Vietnamese Women Entrepreneurs’. Vietnam: United Nations Industrial Development Organisation and Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Available at: http://www.un.org.vn/en/publications/publications-by-agency/doc_details/294-gender-related-obstacles-to-vietnamese-women-entrepreneurs. html [Accessed 7 December 2015].Hang, T.T.T. (2008), “Women’s leadership in Vietnam: opportunities and challenges”, Signs, Vol. 34 No. 1, pp. 16-21. Hirschman, C. and V. M. Loi (1996) Family and Household Structure in Vietnam: Some glimpses from a recent survey, Pacific Affairs Vol 69 (No. 2 (Summer 1996)): 229-249Hoang, B.T. (2010), “Rural employment and life: challenges to gender roles in Vietnam’s agriculture at present”, paper presented at the FAO-IFAD-ILO Workshop on Gaps, Trends and Current Research in Gender Dimensions of Agricultural and Rural Employment: Differentiated Pathways Out of Poverty Rome, 31 March-2 April 2009, available at: www.fao-ilo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/fao_ilo/pdf/Papers/16_march/Thinh_final.pdf Hoang, C., Hoang, C.L.T.S, Nguyen, T.P.C, Ngo, T.P.L, Tran, T.N, Vu, T.L (2013), The women’s access to land in contemporary Vietnam. UNDP Report 2013Hoskisson, R. E., Eden, L., Lau, C.M., &Wright, M. (2000). Strategy in emerging economies. Academy of Management Journal, 43(3), 249–267.ILO (2011) ‘Creation of an enabling environment for women entrepreneur in Vietnam: Mainstreaming gender issues in government policy on enterprise development’, Hanoi.International Finance Corporation (2006) A National Survey of Women Business Owners in Vietnam. Joint survey with Gender and Entrepreneurship Markets (GEM) and the Mekong Private Sector Development Facility (MPDF), Washington, DC, IFCInternational Labour Organisation (2007) ‘Women’s Entrepreneurship Development in Vietnam’. Vietnam: International Labour Organisation.International Labour Organization and the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs of Vietnam (2010), The Informal Economy in Vietnam, ILO/MOLISA, Hanoi.Kibria, N. (1990) Power Patriarchy and Gender Conflict in the Vietnamese Immigrant Community, Gender and Society Vol 4 (No 1 (March 1990)): 9-24 Luke, N. , S. R. Schuler , B. T. T. Mai , P. V. Thien and T. H. Minh (2007) Exploring Couple Attributes and Attitudes and Marital Violence in Vietnam, New York, Sage PublicationsMai thi Thanh Thai, Nguyen Hoang Anh (2016): The impact of culture on the creation of enterprises (2016), Journal for International Business and Entrepreneurship Development, Vol.9, No.1, pp.1 – 22McChesney, F. (1987) Rent extraction and rent creation in the economic theory of regulation, Journal of Legal Studies 16 de Soto, H. (2000) The Mystery of Capital: Why capitalism Triumphs in the west and Fails everywhere Else, New York, Basic BooksMinniti, M. (2010) ‘Women entrepreneurship and Economic Activity’, European Journal of Development Research, 22, pp. 294 – 312.Nguyen, B. (2011) ‘The Changes of Women’s Position: The Vietnam Case’, International Journal of Innovative Interdisciplinary Research, 1, pp. 126 – 138.Nguyen, B. (2012) ‘Abortion in Present Day Vietnam’, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 2 (1), pp. 56 – 61.Nguyen, C., Frederick, H., & Nguyen, H. (2014). Female entrepreneurship in rural Vietnam: An exploratory study. International Journal Of Gender And Entrepreneurship, 6(1), 50-67. Nijssen, E.J. (2014), Entrepreneurial Marketing: An Effectual Approach, Routledge, New York, NY.Raven, P., & Le, Q. (2015). Teaching business skills to women: Impact of business training on women’s microenterprise owners in Vietnam. International Journal Of Entrepreneurial Behaviour And Research, 21(4), 622-641. Rubio-Bañón, A., & Esteban-Lloret, N. (2015). Research article: Cultural factors and gender role in female entrepreneurship. Suma De Negocios Terrell, K., and Troilo, M. (2010) ‘Values and Women entrepreneurship’, International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, 2 (3), pp. 260 – 286.Thanh, H.X., Anh, D.N. and Tacoli, C. (2005), “Livelihood diversification and rural-urban linkages in Vietnam’s red river delta”, Discussion Paper No. 193, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), available at: http://ideas.repec.org/p/fpr/fcnddp/193.htmlThe World Economic Forum (2015) ‘The Global Gender Gap Report 2015’. Switzerland: The World Economic Forum. Available at: http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2015/ [Accessed 8 December 2015].Thi, L. (1995) Doi Moi and female workers: a case study of Ha Noi, in: V. M. Moghadam (ed.), Economic reforms, women's employment and social politics, Helsinki, World Institute for Development Research Tien, P. N. (2010) Overarching view of Gender Equality in Vietnam”, 2010, Conference on Commemoration of International Women’s Day 2010, “Beijing + 15, Looking back, reaching forward, Gender Equality and Women Empowerment 15 years after the Fourth World Conference on Women, Ha Noi, 12 March 2010.United Nations Development Programme (2012) ‘Women’s Representation in Leadership in Vietnam’. Vietnam: United Nations Development Programme.United Nations Development Programme (2015) ‘Human Development Report 2014’. USA: United Nations Development Programme. Available at: http://hdr.undp. org/en/content/human-development-report-2014 [Accessed 10 December 2015].United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). (2010). Gender related obstacles to Vietnamese Women Entrepreneurs. 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Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) is a field in public health that aims to achieve the highest level of health and well-being in all types of work, employment, and occupations through the promotion and prevention of work-related injuries, diseases, and disabilities. OSH is key to increasing the working capacity, productivity, and satisfaction of workers. Workers comprise nearly half of the world’s population with an estimated number of 3.5 billion.1 However, more than 2 million work-related fatalities are reported annually.2 Likewise, an average of 360 million accidents occur in the workplace and 160 million suffer from work-related illnesses every year.2 Initiatives towards health in the workplace can reduce absenteeism by 27% and healthcare costs for companies by 26%. The burden of work-related health problems is evident. Long hours of work attributing to at least 750,000 deaths is found to increase fatalities from heart diseases by 41% and stroke by 19%. Work exposures to air pollution, asthmagens, carcinogens, ergonomic, and other risk factors are linked to 450,000 fatalities. An estimated 360 million non-fatal accidents occur annually leading to loss of productivity and at least four days of absence from work.3 In the Philippines, 17 out of 18 workers or 38.8 million workers are exposed to unsafe working conditions.4 Although a majority of countries have come up with institutional arrangements and strategies for OSH, the global survey on occupational health services shows low coverage of OSH. Around 70% of the total labor force in the world has limited infrastructure, institutional and human resources, which serve as the major hindrance in implementing OSH.5 In the Philippines, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the OSH law was strengthened to increase the awareness of workers of their rights that their safety and health at work are guaranteed, to refuse work that posed an imminent danger, to report accidents, and to mandate the use of personal protective equipment (PPEs) and other safety devices.6 During the COVID-19 pandemic, occupational health and safety activities played a critical role in a safe and healthy workplace. COVID-19 prevention practices such as the use of sanitizers, social distancing, new work shifts, and disinfection of workplaces as forms of risk management and biological risk mitigation were linked to improved safety and health performance.7 However, the ‘work from home’ as the ‘new normal form of work arrangement’ has posed health challenges. The most prevalent physical health problems for working from home were body weight gain at a rate of 40.97%, ergonomic problems that lead to musculoskeletal problems, psychosocial issues, indoor environmental pollution, and lifestyle changes in eating patterns, sleeping habits, and exercise.8 Amid the protracted pandemic, the role of OSH is indeed critical and has changed its focus from the traditional workplace to bringing and doing work at home, as well as emphasizing the link between environmental health and occupational health. Environmental toxins and viruses are among the biological hazards that can be brought from the environment and the community to the workplace, and vice-versa. It is imperative to rethink the framework and strategies of OSH to that from being mainly work-related to a continuum of workplace-environment context; programs and policies should target both these areas. A good example of showing the work-environmental health link is when it comes to inhaling dangerous chemicals at work. It has been shown that while the respiratory system is the primary target organ of SARS-CoV-2, exposure to chemicals in the workplace such as formaldehyde and ammonium compounds, raises the risk of respiratory symptoms and clinical indications among those with SARS-CoV-2 infection.9 Higher levels of air pollution were associated with a higher incidence and mortality rates from COVID-19.9 On a global dimension, the spread and/ or prevention of the spread of SARS-CoV-2 is closely related to water and sanitation. A key recommendation is regular washing of hands for health and hygiene; however, a significant number of the global population currently lacks access to water and sanitation. Corollary to this, wastewater also plays a role in the spread of the virus within communities (KWR, 2020 as cited by OECD, 2021).10 Hence, OSH has both macro-and micro-level implications and is tied to global resources such as water. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a global health challenge in the twenty-first century is coming to the fore — that which is in dire need of a comprehensive OSH policy covering both traditional workplace and home workplace. There is a need for a paradigm shift from a siloed OSH as a stand-alone policy to one that encompasses the wider environment and community-at-large, both locally and cross-border. Institutional and social responsibility efforts to build an intersectoral, whole-of-society, and whole-of-the globe approach are necessary to promote healthier and safer work environments. The call for access to global resources such as water makes OSH a geopolitical concern as well. In all of this, people-centered and universal health coverage for a dedicated policy and programs for OSH especially with the COVID-19 pandemic will make the world of work safer and healthy. Jinky Leilanie Lu, MOH, PhD National Institutes of Health University of the Philippines Manila University Scientist III – UP System Secretary – International Commission of Occupational Health - Mining Occupational Safety and Health (ICOH-MinOSH) REFERENCES World Health Organization (WHO). Protecting worker’s health [Internet]. 2017 [cited 2022 Jan]. Available from: https://www.who.int/en/news[1]room/fact-sheets/detail/protecting-workers’-health International Labour Organization (ILO). Safety and health at work [Internet]. 2021. [cited 2022 Jan]. Available from: https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/safety-and-health-at-work/lang--en/index.htm World Health Organization – International Labour Organization (WHO/ILO). WHO/ILO joint estimates of the work-related burden of disease and injury, 2000-2016: global monitoring report [Internet]. 2021 [cited 2022 Jan]. Available from: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240034945. International Labour Organization Country Office for the Philippines (CO-Manila). Safety and health at work in the Philippines [Internet]. N.d. [cited 2022 Jan]. Available from: https://www.ilo.org/manila/areasofwork/safety-and-health-at-work/lang--en/index.htm Rantanen J, Lehtinen S, Valenti A, Iavicoli S. A global survey on occupational health services in selected international commission on occupational health (ICOH) member countries. BMC Public Health. 2017; 17(1):787. Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP). OSH Law (RA 11058) [Internet]. N.d. [cited 2022 Jan]. Available from: https://safefilming.ph/osh-law-ra11058 de Oliveira Neto GCO, Tucci HNP, Filho MG, Lucat WC, Correia JMF. Performance evaluation of occupational health and safety in relation to the COVID-19 fighting practices established by WHO: survey in multinational industries. Saf Sci. 2021; 141(2021):105331. Ekpanyaskul C, Padungtod C. Occupational health problem and lifestyle changes among novice working-from-home workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Saf Health. 2021; 12(2021):384-9. Sly P, Trottier B, Bulka C, Cormier S, Fobil J, Fry R, et al. The interplay between environmental exposure and COVID-19 risks in the health of children. Environ Health. 2021; 20(34):1-10. Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD). Environmental health and strengthening resilience to pandemics [Internet]. 2021 Apr 21. [cited 2022 Jan]. Available from: https://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/policy-responses/environmental-health-and-strengthening[1]resilience-to-pandemics-73784e04/

Introduction The LEGO Group is a multinational toy manufacturer headquartered in Billund, Denmark, with interests in videogames, television, and film, in addition to toys. Their primary product consists of plastic building blocks with thousands of variations in dozens of colours, purchasable either in sets with instructions to create particular designs, or as assorted boxes for more creative freeform building; sets have a multitude of “themes”, including in-house labels such as ‘Bionicles’ and ‘Ninjago’, ‘city’ sets, and products based on popular intellectual property from film, television, videogames, and even organisations such as NASA. Different sets and themes are targeted at different audience segments, including adults and children by age group. The company announced in 2021 that it would aim to ensure its “products and marketing are accessible to all and free of gender bias” (LEGO Group, “Girls”). The LEGO Group and its various products attract active and engaged fans. LEGO bricks allow users to create designs limited only by their imagination and their ability to acquire sufficient parts. Though initially and perhaps primarily a children’s toy, LEGO has over the past few decades attracted a substantial adult audience, often referred to as Adult Fans of LEGO (AFOLs) who function as brand ambassadors, consumers, and co-creators (Jennings 222). The toy’s creative affordances have allowed AFOLs to establish numerous fan conventions and events at which they display their designs. In addition to unofficial fan activity such as conventions, LEGO has shown an interest in direct economic engagement with fans of their products. This is evidenced by their 2021 purchase of a large after-market LEGO reselling marketplace, Bricklink (LEGO Group, “LEGO Group Acquires”), and the establishment of the LEGO Ideas platform, which is the subject of this article. Such efforts might be viewed in light of Busse’s warning that there is “danger to fan culture [from] the co-optation and colonization of fan creations, interactions, and space” (Busse 112). This article investigates the LEGO Group’s relationship to adult fan labour through the notion of ‘platform rhetoric’, by which we mean the way in which the LEGO Ideas platform, and specifically the LEGO Ideas Guidelines (LEGO Group, “Product Idea”), hereafter “Guidelines”, create an infrastructure for structuring the relationship between fan designers and the company. The platform harnesses the labour of both adult fan designers and other site users to generate new and successful products for the LEGO Group. In doing so, it offers a tantalising case study of how this toy is positioned at the intersection of creativity, transnational data flows, and global economic activity. While the LEGO Ideas platform and Guidelines are not the only space in which LEGO and their fans negotiate such matters, as shown by other examples already mentioned, the platform’s public nature and its intersection with other aspects of participatory online media offer a valuable case study for understanding platform rhetorics and the way they can structure interactions between fans and brands. About LEGO Ideas LEGO Ideas was established in 2008 as a collaboration between the LEGO Group and a Japanese company as a crowdsourcing platform called LEGO CUUSOO. It was relaunched as LEGO Ideas in 2014 (LEGO Group, “LEGO History”). Crowdsourcing is an “online, distributed problem-solving and production model” (Brabham 75) that became popular from about 2006 as a new approach to generating product ideas. It is a process in which “the crowd was co-opted” (Ghezzi et al. 344) and where “products designed by the crowd become the property of companies, who turn large profits off from this crowd labor” (Brabham 76). Ideas appears part of a broader reset for LEGO that occurred as the Internet came to occupy increasing prominence in social and commercial life. Hatch and Shultz (596) observe that in contrast to previous strategies for the company, by the early 2000s “consumer and company alike were now using the Internet as both the platform and a channel for brand engagement”. In line with this trend, the Ideas platform invites fan designers to submit ideas for new LEGO products which then pass through a series of filters before reaching a stage at which the company considers them for production, including multiple stages of public voting. After reaching the final stage of fan voting, potential products are assessed by the LEGO Group on a range of factors. Each of these stages is laid out in the Guidelines, along with authorship arrangements: successful designers receive “1% of the total net sales of the product … 10 complimentary copies of your LEGO Ideas set [and] Credit and bio in set materials as the LEGO Ideas set creator”. Ideas capitalises on the cultures of creation and co-creation that Nancy Jennings has identified as central to AFOL communities, although her work focusses on the Lego Ambassador Program and LEGO Group AFOL Engagement Department (238). The LEGO Ideas Website can be described as a platform, a “digital, socio-technical system that create[s] relationships between different entities” (Lee). When self-applied by the entity, the term platform has a political purpose to simplify or obfuscate “tensions … between user-generated and commercially-produced content, between cultivating community and serving up advertising, between intervening in the delivery of content and remaining neutral” (Gillespie 348). In applying the term ‘platform’ to LEGO Ideas, we are making similar political claims that it occupies a tension-filled role between users (including those who submit designs) and the commercial interests of the LEGO Group. Plantin et al. suggest something of a convergence between platform and infrastructure studies, especially when addressing “new digital objects” (293). The platform also serves a role in collecting large amounts of data for LEGO, which can be understood as equivalent to the advertising initiatives of other platforms. It is certainly not a neutral carrier of content, as our analysis of the Guidelines will show. The affordances of the LEGO Ideas platform engage both fans who actively produce fan products in the form of designs and photographs submitted to the site, but also “nonproductive fans [who] can participate in fandom's gift economy through their engagement with the fruits of fannish labor” (Turk). Such engagement takes the form of participating in the voting systems, commenting upon the designs, and generating engagement through social media. This is a capturing of consumer labour in much the same way envisioned by Toffler (cited in Bruns) in the notion of a ‘prosumer’: “Producer and consumer, divorced by the industrial revolution, are reunited in the cycle of wealth creation, with the customer contributing not just the money but market and design information vital for the production process”. The ecosystem of participation also extends beyond the platform itself as the Guidelines explicitly specify that a user may “promote as you wish online”. Fan designer Brent Waller, creator of two successful LEGO Ideas sets, commented in an interview that you need to actively promote it via outside avenues – forums, websites, Facebook, Twitter etc. This is particularly important if your project is based on existing [sic] license or intellectual property. If that is the case then you need to reach out to those external fan bases who may not be huge LEGO fans but may be a fan of the project you’ve submitted and would love to see it come to life in LEGO form. (Ong, “Interview with Brent Waller”) As such, submitters tend to use social media and other Internet platforms to generate votes, further extending the complexity of interactions between user creativity, the toy company and their economic interests, and the flow of user-generated information across Internet platforms. LEGO Ideas Guidelines as Rhetorical Infrastructure While we have characterised LEGO Ideas as a platform, it is not an open social media platform but instead has tightly controlled submission procedures. Each submission to LEGO Ideas must incorporate several required elements outlined in the Guidelines and be approved by platform staff prior to publication. This is the first in a series of processes by which LEGO Ideas operates to shape the products which are published through it. These are rhetorical infrastructures, “not just containers for composition but systems of support that structure the compositions they generate in an active way” (Pilsch 8). Accepting the distinction between platforms and infrastructure in terms of digital objects discussed by Plantin et al., we are distinguishing between LEGO Ideas as a platform and the LEGO Ideas guidelines as an infrastructural element which shapes how the platform operates. Whereas infrastructure studies has “focused on analyzing essential, widely shared sociotechnical systems” (Plantin et al., 294), the Guidelines serve that purpose only within the Ideas platform for the purposes of this case study. There are similarities in this conception of rhetorical infrastructure and terms such as ‘affordance’, which similarly seek to describe the way in which artifacts embed “mechanisms and conditions [which] create a scaffold through which artifacts request, demand, allow, encourage, discourage, and refuse” (Davis and Chouinard 246, original emphasis). The notion of “rhetorical infrastructure” is distinctive in capturing the functional and relational work done by networks of documents, artifacts, activities, and procedures that underpin action within a given environment (Read 12); within technical communication, there is a particular emphasis on the rhetorical infrastructure of “invisible documents” such as documentation and standards – forms of writing that serve a vital regulatory function but which are often invisible until they fail (Frith 406). Understanding the LEGO Ideas Guidelines as rhetorical infrastructure allows us to excavate how this document works behind the scenes to shape user action and standardise outputs within a platform that ostensibly privileges free play and creativity, but actually transforms these into valuable intellectual property for the LEGO Group. The Guidelines function as a translational infrastructure to incorporate fan labour directly into the LEGO ecosystem. The Guidelines serve their regulatory function in part by outlining in plain terms, both textually and visually, what content will and will not be accepted as a submission to the site. The Guidelines specify that Ideas must be: “single, stand-alone LEGO products”; “a maximum of 3000 pieces”; “must focus on a single concept”; and not based “on a licensed property we currently sell”. Platform users must be older than 13 years of age, and any submitter younger than 18 must have written approval from their caregiver. In this way, LEGO further orients the Ideas platform toward the putative AFOL, and submitted Ideas, in our review, likewise tend to be targeted toward older builders. Additionally, the Guidelines prohibit any commercial activity related to submitted Ideas, although they do permit sharing of “photos and building instructions free of charge”. These are the basic substantive rules by which staff approve submissions to be posted to (or remain on) the platform, though further aesthetic and legal conditions are outlined elsewhere in the Guidelines. Following initial approval, concepts published on LEGO Ideas must achieve a series of voting milestones in which other users of the platform show their ‘support’ – 100 supporters in the first 60 days, 1,000 supporters in the next year, and so on – a process which generates substantial amounts of user data for LEGO. Ultimately, projects have just over two years to attain the figure of 10,000 supporters that triggers the “expert review” phase of the Ideas selection process. Such voting is a form of collective knowledge generation; within the context of a workplace, Majchrzak et al. describe this practice as “metavoicing … adding metaknowledge to the content that is already online” (41). It is also a substantial source of market data. Assuming at least some supporters of each successful project have selected their time zone and filled in other details, the submission of these votes under the LEGO Ideas guidelines demonstrates potential market interest for the projects and other data points of economic interest to the toymaker. Additionally, LEGO Ideas places at least eight ‘cookies’ on Web browsers used to access the site. This process also generates a substantial potential data pool (Bennett; Englehardt et al.). In addition to generating data for LEGO, achieving milestones motivates submitters to continue promoting their idea and thus drives traffic to the platform. Blog posts published on the LEGO Ideas site demonstrate that the 10,000 vote milestone in particular generates substantial excitement for the fan designers. For example, in one such post Peter (user SoGenius106), who submitted an Idea based on television program The Office, notes that this project hit 10k about 8 days before it was set to expire, this is what really made me nervous, knowing that this project was so close to 10K but had little time to get there. (Kamila9) Similarly, Sam (user KaijuBuildz) expressed excitement at reaching the 10,000-supporter milestone: it took a while, around 16 months to be precise. But the feeling when it finally DID hit that magic 5-digit number felt incredible, though it did take some time to truly sink in. (fergushart) Like Waller, quoted earlier, both fan designers noted that using social media platforms outside of Ideas was important to their success. But Sam / KajuiBuildz also credited the platform’s affordances and userbase, suggesting: “word of mouth through the supporters of the project itself was a big help for sure” (fergushart). Such extension across platforms demonstrates “the logic of self-branding – of carefully curated self-promotion – [which] is a fact of social media life, for everyday users and cultural workers alike” (Duffy and Pooley 8). While the LEGO Ideas platform shapes production of submitted projects, the Guidelines also structure the relationship between fan designers and the LEGO Group after any successful voting period. Any Idea that reaches the 10,000-supporter milestone is reviewed by a ‘review board’ of “designers, product managers, and other key team members”; if an Idea is selected for production, “professional LEGO designers take over” (LEGO Group, “Product”). In practice, a number of fan designers document collaborating with professional designers in some capacity. For example, Motorised Lighthouse designer Sandro Quattrini said he was able to express ideas “in our very first meeting” (Ong, “Interview with the LEGO Ideas Design Team”), while the designer of the Typewriter set stated: “I was really made to feel a part of the team” (Huw). In this case, the published document sets a term of engagement that may or may not be reflected in the actual practice of creating a LEGO set following a successful Ideas submission. It therefore establishes the framework through which the decision to interact or not with the designer is left in the hands of LEGO staff assigned to the project. Guidelines for Social Action This points to the dual role of the Guidelines: the document is at once procedural, laying out the steps required of platform users, and social, shaping the ways that users of the platform engage with the Ideas published there and with the LEGO Group. It’s common for technical documents such as guidelines and instructions to be characterised as formulaic, mechanical tools for dictating practice, what Walwema and Butts refer to as “grey genres” (Butts and Walwema 15); in practice, however, such genres both shape users’ actions and position them as members of a community with shared interests and values. This positioning happens in both informal and formal guidelines – for example, Ledbetter’s study of user-generated instructional content in YouTube beauty communities has demonstrated how video tutorials begin from users’ shared interests (here, in makeup techniques) and then build fan-user communities that share specialist vocabularies, social interactions, and value-led behaviours (Ledbetter). Within institutions, codes of conduct are a well-defined and stable genre, yet operate in a complex, unstable nexus of procedural, ethical, and legal contexts; they are simultaneously internal policy documents (setting out standards of behaviour for organisation members), public ethical statements (published as part of an organisation’s commitment to ethical frameworks, emphasising principles and values over actions), and deployed or deployable in legal contexts to shield corporations. As Sam Dragga notes, codes of conduct typically adopt a legislative approach and are composed as “guidelines and regulations”, even where they use language and syntax – like “we” statements – designed to look more like commitments than regulations. These documents position users as subject to the institution’s values, “implying that the individual is without power because all power comes from the regulating corporation” (Dragga 7), rather than as collaborators in them. The LEGO Ideas Guidelines likewise operate to require alignment of user actions with brand values to ensure that fan labour can be successfully monetised at all stages of the Ideas process, from initial visits to the platform right through to commercial production of fan designs. This expectation is codified in the Guidelines’ “Acceptable Content” section: “in order for us to be able to consider your product idea, it must fit with our brand values and guidelines … following these guidelines is the surest recipe to see that your work is approved for LEGO Ideas”. Those values, however, are only implicit in the list of concrete themes and attributes that “do not fit”, including nudity, modern warfare, human-scale weapons, and racism. The Guidelines are explicitly directive, with a hard demarcation between LEGO and its fans: the document refers to “we” the LEGO Group and “you” the user, and bans fan designers from using any version of the brand logo, even an approximation so abstract as “a red square”, lest their submission be misconstrued as LEGO-endorsed. This exclusion occurs even as in-house terminology like “LEGO Fan designer” and “professional LEGO designer” or “LEGO Set designer” establishes an overlap between the labour of fans and employees – one reinforced by the showcasing of those fan designers who do participate in some co-design with LEGO’s professional team when their Idea goes into production. Conclusion The LEGO Ideas platform is presented as a channel for fans and designers to use their existing passion and creativity productively, for their own financial benefit and for the (considerably larger) economic benefit of the company. Adult designers using the platform do so only in alignment within the operation of a set of Guidelines that constrain and guide their decisions in a way perceived to be an appropriate reflection of the LEGO brand. Like other online platforms with social features, the Ideas platform is a commercial infrastructure in which community is shaped, rather than a community infrastructure. The success of the platform has also impacted on the wider toy industry, with other toy companies introducing Ideas-like platforms, such as Mattel’s ‘Creations’. In turn, the platform and its users intersect with other participatory Internet platforms such as social network sites where they promote their Ideas to garner the magical 10,000 supporters needed to progress to the next step. Further engagement with broader notions of digital infrastructure and platforms, especially on the terms described by Plantin et al., would offer fruitful insights into both the wider LEGO operation and LEGO Ideas specifically. Throughout the process, LEGO collects massive amounts of user data from both participating fan designers and other users of the site through both technical means and social signals. Such data is of additional value when combined with other LEGO user accounts such as purchase history, and potentially also with information about users (buyers and sellers) on the Bricklink site. This offers a potentially vast amount of signals about purchase, browsing, and interest among both existing and prospective LEGO customers, and could again be part of a larger study of the company’s corporate strategies. The Guidelines shape the entirety of this interactive space, creating the infrastructure in which different forms of knowledge and cultural capital operate, and rhetorical action occurs. Successful Ideas have captured a social Zeitgeist to gather the required number of supporters, while also ensuring they closely align with the LEGO brand guidelines. LEGO staff participating in the process bring their own institutional perspective to the designs, taking over where required but also consulting the submitting fan designers in a number of cases. On this point, the Guidelines offer ambiguity, allowing the LEGO Group discretion over the final shape of interaction between designers of different status. All of these examples demonstrate the rhetorical infrastructure of the LEGO Ideas platform and its Guidelines. As a key interactive space between the LEGO Group and its adult fan community, the underpinning expertise, documentation, networks of information and individuals, and complex data flows clearly demonstrate the ways that toys can intersect with other social and economic structures. References Bennett, Colin. “Cookies, Web Bugs, Webcams and Cue Cats: Patterns of Surveillance on the World Wide Web”. Ethics and Information Technology 3.3 (Sep. 2001): 195–208. Brabham, Daren. “Crowdsourcing as a Model for Problem Solving: An Introduction and Cases”. Convergence 14.1 (2008): 75–90. Bruns, Axel. “From Prosumption to Produsage.” Handbook on the Digital Creative Economy. Eds. Ruth Towse and Christian Handke. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2013. 67–78. Busse, Kristina. “Fan Labor and Feminism: Capitalizing on the Fannish Labor of Love.” Cinema Journal 54.3 (2015): 110–115. 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L’année 1919 a été décisive dans l’histoire sociale. En effet, elle fut marquée par la création de l’Organisation internationale du travail (OIT), issue de la partie XIII du traité de Versailles. Cette institution à vocation universelle se plaçait dans la continuité d'expérimentations et de réflexions menées, depuis le XIXe siècle, sur le Vieux Continent. L’objectif des puissances européennes était de définir un cadre international de règles, communes aux Etats, pour empêcher à la fois les excès de certains patrons, les conflits avec les travailleurs, tout en combattant la pratique du dumping social et en garantissant une concurrence loyale, non seulement entre eux mais aussi à l’échelle internationale. La France joua un rôle majeur dans la rédaction de ces textes et dans la création de l’OIT, chargée de poursuivre ce travail. De ce fait, cette institution dut concilier l’européocentrisme dominant le BIT et sa vocation universelle. La solution apparut, durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, à travers l’interrégionalisme développé par Paul van Zeeland, et que l’institution tenta de mettre en œuvre durant l’après-guerre et la guerre froide. Il s’agissait de créer des regroupements régionaux et de les faire coopérer dans les domaines politique, économique et social pour garantir la paix dans le monde ; l’Europe occidentale devait en être le laboratoire. Cette région, notamment la France, influença donc durablement les réflexions de l’OIT
The year 1919 was decisive in the social history. Indeed, it was marked by the creation of the International Labour Organization (ILO), resulting from part XIII of the treaty of Versailles. This institution with universal vocation placed itself in continuity of experiments and of carried out reflections, since the 19th century, on the Old continent. The objective of the European powers was to define an international framework of common rules for States, to prevent at the same time excesses of some managers, the conflicts with the workers, while fighting the practice of the social dumping and guaranteeing a fair competition, not only between them but also on an international scale. France played a major role in the writing of these texts and the creation of the ILO, charged to continue this work. So this institution had to reconcile the europeocentrism dominating the International Labour Office and its universal vocation. The solution appeared, during the Second World War, through the interregionalism developed by Paul van Zeeland, and that the institution tried to implement during the post-war period and the cold war. It was a question of creating regional regroupings and of making them cooperate in the policy fields, economic and social to guarantee peace in the world; Western Europe had to be the laboratory about it. This region, in particular France, thus influenced durably the reflections of the ILO

L’année 1919 a été décisive dans l’histoire sociale. En effet, elle fut marquée par la création de l’Organisation internationale du travail (OIT), issue de la partie XIII du traité de Versailles. Cette institution à vocation universelle se plaçait dans la continuité d'expérimentations et de réflexions menées, depuis le XIXe siècle, sur le Vieux Continent. L’objectif des puissances européennes était de définir un cadre international de règles, communes aux Etats, pour empêcher à la fois les excès de certains patrons, les conflits avec les travailleurs, tout en combattant la pratique du dumping social et en garantissant une concurrence loyale, non seulement entre eux mais aussi à l’échelle internationale. La France joua un rôle majeur dans la rédaction de ces textes et dans la création de l’OIT, chargée de poursuivre ce travail. De ce fait, cette institution dut concilier l’européocentrisme dominant le BIT et sa vocation universelle. La solution apparut, durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, à travers l’interrégionalisme développé par Paul van Zeeland, et que l’institution tenta de mettre en œuvre durant l’après-guerre et la guerre froide. Il s’agissait de créer des regroupements régionaux et de les faire coopérer dans les domaines politique, économique et social pour garantir la paix dans le monde ; l’Europe occidentale devait en être le laboratoire. Cette région, notamment la France, influença donc durablement les réflexions de l’OIT
The year 1919 was decisive in the social history. Indeed, it was marked by the creation of the International Labour Organization (ILO), resulting from part XIII of the treaty of Versailles. This institution with universal vocation placed itself in continuity of experiments and of carried out reflections, since the 19th century, on the Old continent. The objective of the European powers was to define an international framework of common rules for States, to prevent at the same time excesses of some managers, the conflicts with the workers, while fighting the practice of the social dumping and guaranteeing a fair competition, not only between them but also on an international scale. France played a major role in the writing of these texts and the creation of the ILO, charged to continue this work. So this institution had to reconcile the europeocentrism dominating the International Labour Office and its universal vocation. The solution appeared, during the Second World War, through the interregionalism developed by Paul van Zeeland, and that the institution tried to implement during the post-war period and the cold war. It was a question of creating regional regroupings and of making them cooperate in the policy fields, economic and social to guarantee peace in the world; Western Europe had to be the laboratory about it. This region, in particular France, thus influenced durably the reflections of the ILO

AbstractNowadays, in the era of flexible and precarious employment, the concept of a ‘career for life’ in one organisation appears to be redundant, as most employees in the global labour market do not have permanent employment (ILO, World employment and social outlook: the changing nature of jobs. Geneva: International Labour Office, 2015). This chapter focuses on the shipping industry as an example of a global industry that employs over a million seafarers (BIMCO, Manpower 2005 update: the worldwide demand for and supply of seafarers. Warwick: Warwick Institute for Employment Research, 2015) as their main labour force in what could termed flexible employment. The chapter explores the idea of having a ‘career’ within the precarious shipping industry by focusing on the reasons for joining, staying, and leaving a seafaring occupation. The chapter is based on existing literature, and on recent data that was collected as part of a study on seafarers’ career development.

AbstractThe Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), while primarily a security organisation, has always included economic and human baskets or dimensions. Currently, the Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities operates in four main areas: (1) good governance and anti-corruption, (2) money laundering and financing of terrorism, (3) transport, trade and border-crossing facilitation, and (4) labour migration. This chapter addresses developments in Central Asia since the dissolution of the Soviet Union that are relevant to the third area of OSCE operations. The chapter’s focus is on the potential for the landlocked Central Asian countries to become land-linked, using improved transport connections between East Asia and Europe to promote economic development through export diversification and growth. Rail services across Central Asia improved considerably during the 2010s. They have been resilient, despite strained political relations between Russia and the EU since 2014, and rail traffic between Europe and China continued to increase in 2020 despite the shock of COVID-19. Further infrastructure improvements are promised under China’s Belt and Road Initiative. However, the expanded network has been little used by Central Asian producers to create new international trade, and the improved infrastructure represents a potential opportunity rather than a past benefit. If the Central Asian economies are successful in taking advantage of the opportunity, it will stimulate their trade across the Eurasian region and help economic diversification. The main determinant of success will be national policies and national economic development. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the role of multilateral institutions and, in particular, the prospects for OSCE collaboration with existing fora to promote cooperation and economic development in Central Asia.

Abstract Bibliographical references: Industrial and Labour Information (1920-1940); R. Parent: Etude bibliographique des publications du Bureau international du travail, Quebec 1943; J. T Shotwell (ed.): The Origins of the International Labour Organisation, 2 vols., New York 1934; F G. Wilson: Labor in the League System. A Study of the International Labor Organization in Relation to International Administration, Stanford 1934; C. W Jonks: The Relations between Membership of the League of Nations and Membership of the International Labour Organisation, BYIL 16 (1935), 79-83; A. Bernstein: Les organisations ouvrieres, leurs competences et leur role clans la Societe des Nations et notamment clans l’Organisation internationale du travail, Paris 1936; H. B. Butler: The International Labour Organisation, London 1939; J. Follows: Antecedents of the International Labour Organisation, Oxford 1951; L. L. Lorwin: The International Labour Movement. History, Policies, Outlook, New York 1953; G. A. Johnston: The International Labour Organisation. Its Work for Social and Economic Progress, London 1970; A. Alcock: History of the International Labour Organisation, London 1971; V Y. Ghebali: Organisation internationale du travail, Geneve 1987; id.: International Labour Organisation: A Case Study on the Evolution of U.N. Specialised Agencies, Dordrecht 1988; International Labour Office: International Labour Conventions and Recommendations 1919-1991, 2 vols., Geneva 1992; Bundesministerium fiir Arbeit und So;:;ialordnung: Weltfriede durch soziale Gcrechtigkeit. 75Jahre Internationale Arbeitsorganisation, Baden-Baden 1994.